The present invention relates to radar target simulators, and more particularly, to a portable radar target simulator that employs fiber optic delay lines, variable power attenuation, and Doppler signal generation to provide for different simulated targets.
Conventional target simulators available today obtain information from a radar under test and reconstruct radar pulses after some user defined time delay. This reconstruction method works well in a laboratory environment, but is difficult to implement on a fight line. This is so because the information needed to reconstruct the radars pulses has become increasingly difficult to obtain. There are two factors affecting this data acquisition: size and speed. Newer radars are more compact to reduce weight and size. This means more of the available area on each radar is devoted to tactical input and output devices, and thus there are fewer test access input and output devices.
Conventional radar target simulators have used these test access input and output devices to reconstruct simulated targets. In the laboratory environment, the radar's tactical wire harness breakout is buffered to the local radar target simulator, but this option is not feasible on a flight line. The newer radars are also capable of greater speeds thus putting strain on the processing time-line required to reconstruct the radar pulses. In order to reconstruct the simulated targets, presently available radar systems require information regarding pulse width, code, transmit frequency, and information regarding frequency manipulation, such as frequency slopes.
Thus, there is a need for a radar target simulator that provides simulated targets on a flight line for tactical radar systems that overcomes the difficulties encountered with conventional laboratory-type target simulators. Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a portable radar target simulator that employs fiber optic delay lines, variable power attenuation, and Doppler signal generation to provide for different simulated targets with limited radar signal access.